Solved: Expert Needed to Review and Improve Meta Ads Performance

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out! Happy to give you some initial thoughts and a bit of guidance on your Meta ads. It sounds like you're in a decent position already, spending a good amount and having the creative and tracking side of things sorted is more than half the battle for a lot of businesses. But you're right, with an $8k a month spend, there's almost always room for improvement and optimisation.

From what you've said, it feels like the foundations are solid, but the actual strategy and structure within the Meta ads platform itself is likely where the biggest gains are to be made. An agency can sometimes get comfortable and just let things run, especially if the results are 'decent'. But decent isn't what you're paying for; you're paying for the best possible return. So lets have a look at a few areas.

We'll need to look at your Campaign Objectives & Structure...

This is the absolute first thing I'd check. It's so fundamental but you'd be surprised how many accounts, even ones managed by agencies, get this bit wrong or don't have it set up for optimal performance. You mentioned you're a service-based company looking for leads. So, the campaign objective for pretty much all your spending should be 'Conversions' (or 'Leads' in the newer ODAX setup). You need to be telling Meta's algorithm exactly what you want it to find for you: people who will fill out your form or call you, not just people who will click a link or watch a video for a few seconds.

If your agency is running campaigns with objectives like 'Traffic' or 'Engagement', that's a massive red flag straight away. Sure, you'll get cheap clicks and lots of likes, but that traffic is usually low quality and won't convert. It looks good in a report ('Look, we got you 10,000 clicks!') but it doesn't help your bottom line. With an $8k budget, you need to be feeding the algorithm conversion data so it can get smarter and find you more of the right people. You've got Hyros, so you're already set up to feed that data back perfectly. The objective needs to reflect the business goal.

Then there's the structure. A common mistake is to lump everything into one or two campaigns. I prefer to structure campaigns based on the marketing funnel. It gives you much better control over budget and messaging. A simplified structure for a local service business like yours would look something like this:

1. Top-of-Funnel (ToFu) / Prospecting Campaign:
This is where you find new people who've never heard of you. The goal is to introduce your service to a cold audience within your 30-mile radius. All the budget that isn't for retargeting goes here. You'd be testing different cold audiences against each other in different ad sets (we'll get to audiences in a minute).

2. Middle-of-Funnel (MoFu) / Warm Retargeting Campaign:
This is for people who've shown some interest but haven't become a lead yet. They might have visited your website, watched a chunk of your videos, or engaged with your Facebook/Instagram page. The messaging here is different. It's not an introduction anymore; it's more about building trust, answering common questions, and showing them why you're the best choice. This should have its own dedicated, smaller budget.

3. Bottom-of-Funnel (BoFu) / Hot Retargeting Campaign:
This is for people who got really close to converting. They visited your contact page, maybe even started filling out the lead form but didn't finish. These are your hottest prospects. The messaging here needs to be direct, maybe with a compelling offer or a strong call to action to get them over the line. Again, a seperate, smaller budget here is best.

Splitting it out like this means you can talk to each group of people in the right way, with the right message. You don't want to show a 'Welcome to our company!' ad to someone who was just about to send you an enquiry. It also allows you to control your budget more effectivly and see exactly which part of your funnel is working and which part needs attention.

I'd say you need to really drill down on your audience targeting...

This is probably where the biggest and quickest wins are hiding for you. Since you're operating in a 30-mile radius, your potential audience size is already limited, which is actually a good thing. It means you can be much more deliberate with your targeting. Having good creative is fantastic, but if you're showing it to the wrong people, it's just a waste of money. With an $8k budget, you have more than enough to do some serious testing and find pockets of high-converting customers.

The key is a prioritised, systematic approach to testing audiences. Too many people just throw a few random interests into an ad set and hope for the best. You need a proper hierachy. I've audited so many accounts where this is the main issue. They test lookalikes that are way too broad or focus on interests that don't really align with thier ideal customer.

Here’s how I would prioritise audiences for a local service business, starting from the highest potential value:

Priority 1: Hot Retargeting (BoFu)
These are your golden geese. They're on the verge of converting. You absolutly must have ad sets targeting these people. -> People who visited your contact/quote page but didn't submit (e.g., last 14 days).
-> People who added a service to a cart if you have that function (e.g., last 14 days).

Priority 2: Warm Retargeting (MoFu)
These people know who you are. The goal is to nurture them and bring them back. -> All website visitors (e.g., last 30-90 days, excluding converters).
-> People who watched 50% or more of your professional videos (e.g., last 30 days).
-> People who have engaged with your Facebook or Instagram page (e.g., last 90 days).

Priority 3: High-Intent Lookalike Audiences (ToFu)
Once you have enough data (you need at least 100 people in a source audience, but really you want a few hundred or a thousand to make it work well), you can create Lookalike audiences. These are people who 'look like' your best customers. It's Meta's algorithm doing the hard work for you. You MUST layer these with your 30-mile radius location targeting.
-> 1% Lookalike of your customer list (you can upload this).
-> 1% Lookalike of your leads from Hyros.
-> 1% Lookalike of people who initiated checkout/viewed contact page.

Priority 4: Detailed Interest/Behaviour Targeting (ToFu)
This is your bread and butter for finding new customers. The trick is to be smart about the interests you choose. Don't just go for broad stuff. Think about what your ideal customer is really interested in that the average person isn't. For example, if you're a premium home renovation company, instead of just targeting 'Real Estate', you could try layering interests like 'Houzz' or 'Grand Designs' with high-income-indicator behaviours or postcodes within your radius. You need to test these in seperate ad sets to see what works.
-> Test different 'themes' of interests in their own ad sets. E.g., one ad set for competitor brands, one for industry magazines/blogs, one for related hobbies etc.

Priority 5: Broad Targeting (ToFu)
This means targeting only your 30-mile radius with basic age and gender, and nothing else. It sounds crazy, but once your pixel has thousands of conversion events logged (which it should with your budget and Hyros), you can sometimes find that trusting Meta's algorithm to find converters within a geographic area works incredibly well, and often cheaper than stacking on interests. This is something to test once your account is really mature.

Here's a sample table showing how you could structure the ad sets inside your main ToFu Prospecting campaign. Each row would be a separate ad set you're testing.

You need to be ruthless here. Test these ad sets against each other. After a few days (enough time to get a clear picture, don't be too hasty), if an ad set is spending money and the Cost Per Lead is 2-3x higher than your best performing ones, turn it off and test something new. Always be testing.

You probably should reassess your ad creatives and copy...

I know you said you have professionally shot videos and photos, which is brilliant. But 'professional' doesn't always equal 'high-converting'. Sometimes, a more raw, authentic-looking video shot on an iPhone can outperform a slick, corporate-style production because it feels more genuine and stops the scroll better on social media. It's less about production value and more about the message and how it connects with the audience.

You should be testing different creative concepts. Not just different images of the same thing. For example:
-> Problem/Solution Angle: Start the video by highlighting a common problem your customers face, then introduce your service as the perfect solution. -> Testimonial/Social Proof Angle: Use a video of a happy customer talking about their experience. This is incredibly powerful for a local service business where trust is so important.
-> Behind-the-Scenes/Process Angle: Show your team at work. It humanises your brand and shows the care and quality that goes into what you do.
-> UGC-style Angle: User-generated content style. Even if you film it yourselves, making it look like a customer recorded it can build instant trust. We've seen several clients have great results with UGC, it's defintely something worth testing.

The first 3 seconds are everything. You need a strong 'hook' to stop people from scrolling past. Test different hooks for the same video. For example, you could start with a question, a surprising statistic, or a direct shot of the amazing 'after' result of your service.

And the copy needs to work hand-in-hand with the creative. It needs to be direct, benefit-led, and have a clear Call to Action (CTA). Don't just say 'Click here'. Say 'Get Your Free Quote Today' or 'Schedule Your Consultation Now'. Tell people exactly what to do next. You should also be testing short copy vs long copy. Sometimes a quick, punchy sentence is all you need. Other times, a more detailed, story-driven post can work wonders. You won't know until you test it. For a local service, building trust in the copy is huge. Mentioning you're local, family-owned (if you are), or have X number of 5-star reviews can make a big differance.

You'll need a robust testing methodology...

This all comes together with a disciplined approach to testing. 'Improving performance' isn't a one-time fix; it's a continuous process of testing, learning, and iterating. With your budget, you have the ability to run proper tests and get statistically significant data quickly.

The idea is to isolate variables. Don't test new audiences AND new creatives in the same ad set at the same time. If it works, you won't know why it worked. The best way is to find a winning creative first by testing different ads against your best, most reliable audience (like a broad retargeting audience). Once you have a 'control' creative that you know performs well, you then use that creative to test different audiences against each other, like in the table I showed you earlier.

When do you know when to stop a test? It's not about time, it's about spend and data. A good rule of thumb is to let an ad set spend at least 2-3 times your target Cost Per Lead before you make a call on it. If your target CPL is $50, you need to let it spend $100-$150 before deciding if it's a dud. Killing ads and ad sets too early is a very common and costly mistake.

This constant testing and optimisation is how you get big results. I remember one client, a medical job matching SaaS, who came to us looking to reduce their Cost Per User Acquisition. They were running Meta and Google Ads, and by implementing a rigorous testing structure for audiences and creatives, we managed to reduce their £100 CPA to just £7. For a local service buisness, it's the same principle. We’ve also run ads for childcare services where the CPL was around $10 per signup. The potential is there if you're systematic about it.

I've detailed my main recommendations for you below:

Hopefully this gives you a much clearer picture of where the opportunities for improvement are. It's not just about spending money; it's about spending it intelligently. The difference between a 'decent' campaign and a truly great one lies in this kind of detailed, strategic management.

While you can certainly take these ideas and discuss them with your current agency or try to implement them yourself, the real value of an expert partner is in the constant, day-to-day execution of this strategy. It's about analysing the data that comes in, interpreting it correctly, and making the right decisions on what to test next, week after week. That's how you turn an $8k ad spend into a powerful, predictable lead generation machine for your business.

If you'd like to have a more in-depth chat where we could actually look at your account together and pinpoint these opportunities on a screen share, we offer a free, no-obligation initial consultation. It might be a really useful way for you to get a second opinion and a clear, actionable plan.

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh